Blue Eyed Angel
by Chili-Girl
Summary: Another High School fic, but I promise you this one is different from your average. A certain guy does Yuna a huge favour, but he is hiding something dark from his past. Will Yuna ever find it, or is it too deeply hidden?
1. A Jump Start

Disclaimer: FFX, FFX-2 and any characters mentioned in this story all belong to Squaresoft (or Titanic).

A Jump Start 

She was falling, slowly.

FLASHBACK

"Yunieeee, this is soooooooo boring," Said a depressed blond, like her flames had just been distinguished. She lay sprawled on a chair with one leg over the armrest, one hanging loosely down and her arms lazily hooked over the back. "Can't we just go outside for a little bit?"

"Rikku, you know I hate flying, I'm not feeling so good – and going outside's not gonna help." Replied Yuna, who looked a slightly pale, if not a tint green on the cheeks.

She had one calm blue ocean eye, whist the other was a sparkling emerald green. Along with that she had silvery-hazel coloured hair. To put it straight, she had a unique beauty, not your usual slightly pretty beauty or your inch-thick foundation beauty, but a unique, if slightly unusual beauty.

"But it's so stuffy in here, don't you think some fresh air would do you good?

Brothers not driving, he stormed off to his room after I told him you didn't need a get-better-hug, so you're not gonna fall over the edge with his dodgy driving." Replied Rikku hopefully.

Yuna gazed at her cousin in thought '_I suppose some fresh air could do me good, I just don't wanna look down at the water below'_

"OK, I give up, we'll go outside – but only for a little while, you know how much I hate water and flying." Yuna gave in.

"Yippee, I was soooo bored!" said an over exaggerating and over excited Rikku. She started bouncing round Yuna in a happy dance whilst she got up off the floor – which didn't help Yuna's sickness. Her sunny blond braids clicked and clacked with the beads platted into them as she danced, some falling out of her blue headband. She had orangey swirled eyes that complemented her fair skin and hair colour. She wore a little skirt with a bikini top, for only she had to confidence to flaunt her body like that.

"Rikku, stop it or I'll throw up on you!" Yuna threatened which caused Rikku to squeal and hurriedly run out the door that led to the airship's deck. Yuna just groaned and followed.

Yuna was glad that Rikku had suggested going outside, despite the fact she hated heights and deep water such as that which stretched out seamlessly below her. The fresh air was making Yuna feel better already.

She was headed to Besaid Island, a quiet, serene and peaceful place. It had the calmest waters in all a Spira during the summer – perfect for swimming, blitz practice and surfing. The education there was excellent too, which is the main reason why she was here.

Her parents had died when she was only very little, she had no memory of them except one that was of her mother singing a bedtime lullaby to her. Her parents died in a car crash when she was 4 years old. Since then she had been living with her cousin Rikku and her family - Cid and Brother. They had been tired of Zanarkand life and their school wasn't 'the best' to put it honestly. Rikku had fit in well and no doubt would have problems doing so here, but Yuna had been slightly teased about her mismatched eyes and by any boys who asked her out whom she rejected. She was just waiting for the right person, what was so wrong with that?

Rikku was in a Titanic pose at the front of the ship, her sunny hair whipping about in the wind, whilst Yuna hung back from the edge and just admired the lovely blue sky.

Cid's gritty voice suddenly cracked through the speakers, "Besaid Island is in sight, we're almost there girls!"

In the background could be heard Brother entering and whooping with insane delight

then arguing with Cid for the controls of the airship.

Suddenly there was a large thundering noise and the engines of the airship coughed. Rikku lost her ecstatic happiness and looked worriedly at Yuna, who suddenly thought that maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. The engines continued to cough and erupted ear pounding bangs, then it completely cut our all together.

The airship lurched downwards, which gave Yuna and Rikku an uneasy weightless feeling before throwing them up against the rails of the deck. Screaming and shouting could be heard on the speaker. The engines snapped back to life and gave the airship another sickening lurch of power, before cutting out again. This time the force was stronger and Yuna felt her weak grasp on the rails rip loose.

"YUNAAAAAA" She heard Rikku scream and caught a glimpse of Rikku's frightful face.

She couldn't scream, she couldn't move, she couldn't believe what was happening.

END FLASHBACK

She was falling, slowly.

Yuna watched as the airship got smaller and smaller, and Rikku's face staring aghast with a desperate outreached hand, getting so small that is disappeared along with the it.

They say that before death, your whole life flashes before you, but whoever said that was wrong. Yuna felt nothing except a sick, weightless feeling in her stomach. She could see the light, but deep blue oceans of Besaid dawning nearer at a quickening speed. Then, before she could contemplate anymore, Yuna hit the ocean surface.

(A/N: Hehe, bit of a cliffhanger there! Hiya, I know it's a lil' short but I promise the next paragraph will be loads bigger. Don't forget to review and I don't mind any criticism coz that would be v. helpful – especially seeing as I have this thing where I mean one word but I absentmindedly write another and bypass it when I check it though eg, I write 'and' instead of 'an'. So that would be v. helpful if u could point that out and I will change it! Please give it a chance, the plot may be slow at the beginning but it will progress, honest! ; - )


	2. Encounters With Angels

Disclaimer: FFX, FFX-2 and any characters mentioned in this story all belong to Squaresoft.

**Encounters With Angels**

Yuna hit the ocean surface with a hard slap, which both really hurt from belly flopping and completely forced all the air out of her. She was forced deeply underwater from the height of her fall and, for a moment she was completely shocked.

Then her senses kicked in and she snapped out of her shock and frantically tried reaching the surface, but it was no good, she couldn't swim and she desperately reached out to grab onto something, anything – but there was nothing. Her fingers slipped through the crystal clear water like... well water. Struggling for breath she felt herself hopelessly begin to sink, picking up speed as she went. The light, serene surface disappeared bit by bit, clouded by darker ocean. She was in pain from holding in her breath and reluctantly let it go, disturbing the water around as the perfect spheres drifted upwards - towards her freedom. She felt herself hit the ocean floor, which was an eerie moonlight colour and sandy smooth. All around her was dark, yet clear water. Yuna lay for what seemed an eternity on the ocean floor. Wishing for death to give her a painless, quick end. But she gave up hope, her body ached from lack of oxygen and her heart heaved.

The suddenly she saw something, a glimmer of gold. Gold? It was coming closer. It was coming closer at an amazing speed. Her vision was beginning to blur, she was fading from consciousness but she could see that the gold was actually a person; they were so close, but not close enough. Her eyes clouded over and she shut them in defeat.

Then suddenly, she felt arms grasping her with a strong grip around her waist. Then with an almighty powerful push off the ocean floor, she could feel herself rising up to the surface. She felt protected; like the arms were cradling her and wouldn't let go... maybe she was dead...no, it seemed so real. Yuna wanted to see the light blue sky so badly but her body refused to let her, and she slowly fell into unconscious.

Yuna felt calm. Something warm was on her lips. Smooth and soft and she wanted more. Then she was snapped out of this calmness as she felt two sharp thumps on her left ribcage. '_Owww, what was that, where has the softness from my lips gone?_' she thought, but before she could complain she heard someone talk.

"Dude, you can stop the CPR, I think she's coming to, ya" She heard in the distance and was just about to think '_CPR, who needs CPR'_ when she suddenly needed to cough - badly. Salty water clogged up her throat and she instantly snapped awake automatically turned to her side to cough and splutter the disgusting taste out. She lay back down and slowly opened her bleary eyes.

What she saw both shocked and calmed her at the same time.

"An Angel!" She gasped aloud as she gazed up at the figure above her.

He had the most beautiful golden, sun-kissed hair she had ever seen. It had a messy, boyish flaxen appearance and a stand of luxurious hair was caught in his unique eyes, which he quickly carefully brushed aside. His eyes were the colour of the rare deep ocean that she had only seen a few minutes ago – although they did hold a mixture of curious bewilderment in them. He was gave her a small and gentle smile, which revealed pearly white teeth and made Yuna feel tingly all over. He had an olive tan and was shirtless with some baggy jeans. Some droplets of water rolled lazily over his finely toned chest and Yuna found herself thinking '_Since when did angels wear jeans?_'

Then she felt herself blush with mad embarrassment at the fact she had just thought she was dead, called someone an angel aloud and basically just made a complete fool of herself in front of this gorgeous guy and who ever else was there. At least she now understood the feelings in his eyes.

She finally managed to tear her eyes away from his to look around herself, and luckily there was only one other person, who definitely snapped her out of her state when she saw his hair. It was like a demented, bright orange tidal wave. He had a friendly, kind smile though that made you do the same.

"You ok, ya. You had us worried for a minute that you weren't gonna wake up!" He said to her.

"N-No, I'm ok... just a little shocked." Replied Yuna nervously, refusing to look back up at the angel in case she got caught staring again.

"We could hear the airship all the way from this beach when we were practicing blitz and the we saw you fall from it." Said the angel who had decided to speak at last, causing Yuna to reluctantly switch her gaze from the golden sands to his beautiful face. '_What did he say, I can't think straight when he looks at me like that... something about an airship... airship... AIRSHIP!!!_'

"OH MY YEVON, THE AIRSHIP!" Yuna suddenly yelled making the orange haired dude jump back from his crouching position besides Yuna.

"Oh crap, where is it- did either of you see what happened to it?" Yuna asked frantically, desperately searching only the angel's eyes for answers since she could not pull away.

"I didn't get to see it, I was busy searching for you underwater." He replied honestly, then switched his mesmerising gaze to the orange haired guy and asked him the question for Yuna instead.

"I dunno, I was busy watchin Tidus here, see if he was gonna pop up to the surface for air after speed he took off like that? But I think it-" He didn't get to finish his sentence though, when suddenly a high pitched screaming voice called out.

"YUNIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, OH MY YEVON YOUR ALIVE!!!" Rikku came bounding at her from far down the beach with such an alarming speed that Yuna's relieved thoughts of seeing her again were replaced with thoughts of whether she was going to be able to stop at the speed she was frantically running towards her. She made it to Yuna in record time and immediately gave her a deathly squeezing hug that winded her - again. Never underestimate Rikku – for such a small person she had the strength of a Zu and the stamina of an annoying woodpecker.

"Oh Yunie, we were so worried about you. When I saw you fall I thought- I thought... oh I didn't want to think what could have happened. I'm so sorry, this is my entire fault, you didn't want to go outside and I should have accepted that. Oh I'm so sorry, so sorry..." Rikku muttered angrily whist sobbing into Yuna's already drenched t-shirt.

"It was mostly Brother's fault too, just grabbing hold of the controls like that. The stupid shoopuf brain forgot we were out of the deck even though you'd think he would use his initiative that we weren't in the Cabin or the Bridge?!" Rikku said, suddenly getting angry.

"What?! Brother happy we nearly there. Yuna, you ok? I am so sorry." Said a sullen Brother, who had appeared behind Rikku's bouncy braided head, with Cid too.

"You need a get-better-hug?" He asked hopefully.

"NO! She does _not_ need a _get-better-hug _OK!" Rikku spat angrily at him, suddenly jumping up off Yuna and stalking over to him. They started yelling frantically in the background and Cid just rolled his eyes.

"Glad your okay kiddo. We were so worried, don't know what we'd do without you – I'd probably go insane from being around them two all the time for one!" Cid joked, making a good situation out of a bad one.

Yuna glanced over at the angel who she had found out was called Tidus and the orange haired guy, who had both stepped back a bit from all the commotion to let them reunite and argue.

"Thank you so very much for helping me." Said Yuna, her eyes glancing from the orange hair dude to Tidus. She remember it was he who had been the gold person swimming towards her, holding her, rescuing her...the one whose lips she felt...

"No prob, we should get goin ya." Said the orange haired guy, snapping her out of her daydream.

"Yes... Yes and thank you, again and ummm... I'm sorry, but what are your names?" Yuna asked sincerely.

"Oh, I'm Wakka and he's Tidus." Said Wakka. Yuna looked back over at Tidus who was picking up his dry t-shirt of the sand. He was undeniably beautiful, but he seemed the quiet type, not one to flaunt what he had or use it to go out with a new girl each week – like some of the jocks back at her Zanarkand school.

Wakka seemed friendly, a bit of a joker and the sort of person you can instantly trust. Tidus... something felt different about him, like he was hiding something. His aura was confused about something; he had a mysterious shadow over him. It was like he was hiding a dark secret that he had kept for concealed for most of his life and carefully practiced hiding it so no one would notice. Yuna had spent most her life studying people; she was the quiet girl who not many would notice but she would see your true emotions when you thought you thought you were safe. But even Yuna found trouble trying to decipher his feelings and emotions. He was now staring over at Rikku and Brother, (who had both apologised and were now chatting with Cid), with an almost sad expression in those luring, deep ocean blue eyes of his. He felt her eyes on him and immediately snapped his eyes down to the sandy beech before looking over at her.

"We hope you're ok, maybe we'll see you around?" He said lightly – his previous emotions disintegrated before her as he snapped back to reality.

"Ya, we better be goin bro," Wakka said looking at his watch.

"Oh wait a sec, I wanna say thanks and goodbye too!" Rikku said, catching the whiff of the conversation and walking over. Up till then she hadn't looked at Tidus, but suddenly she spotted him and she gave a little blush and started frantically twirling a braid around her fingers and sending him cute smiles.

"They're Wakka and Tidus, but they've gotta get going." Yuna said quickly, before Rikku could start flirting with Tidus and make Yuna both annoyed and jealous.

"Yep, gotta go, see you later." Said Tidus and he a Wakka finally managed to depart, taking off hurriedly up the beach.

Yuna watched them leave, well, maybe she watched _Tidus_ leave.

Then they started walking back themselves, Cid told Yuna they managed to crash land in another bay further up the shore. There was little body damage but the engines had taken a lot of battering and will need a lot of extensive work on them. Apart from that, all's good and their new house isn't far from here.

'_I wonder what he meant by see you later? Did he mean see you later as in see you later or see you later as in just see you later?_' Yuna found herself thinking as they made their way to their new house by foot. She knew she was thinking too hard about such a little phrase, but there was something about Tidus that just drew her to him, like some invisible force that wanted her to... be with him?!

'_No that's impossible, I've only just met the guy!_' She tried to convince herself, but her thoughts continued to remind her of him, the angel.

(A/N: Okay, wad'ya think? Hope it's understandable but feel free to point out any mistakes I make in reviews! Now I gotta get started on the next chapter, c ya!)


	3. A New Story

(A/N: I'm really sorry I got Rikku's eye colour wrong but I don't have a close up picture of her handy and I'm a newbie with this story-creator thing so I don't really know how to change it! Oh well!)

Disclaimer: FFX, FFX-2 and any characters mentioned in this story all belong to Squaresoft.

**A New Story **

The house was beautiful, seriously. Before, Yuna had lived in several cramped flats in Zanarkand but this was an _actual _home.

It was anybody's typical house, but to Yuna, Rikku and Brother this was a palace. They stood in line in front of the house just staring, open-mouthed.

'_Maybe this really is a fresh start?' _Yuna thought.

Cid just shrugged it off, and then started dragging two out of the six suitcases that belonged to Rikku inside the house. Brother grabbed the next two and tried to impress Yuna by hefting both over one shoulder, but just lost balance and toppled over into the flowerbed.

Rikku snapped out of the daze and started having a go at Brother for dropping her suitcase that had 'valuable clothes inside'.

This just left Yuna gazing at the house. It had a wooden-farmhouse look about it and there was a raised porch on the ground floor. But it wasn't the only one. There was one next door on the left, on the right, and for about another mile down the road.

But still, it was home.

"Come on Yunie, wake up. You sure you didn't hit your head of something when you fell out the airship – You've been in a daze since we started walking back from the beach. You better hurry up or I'm gonna get the best room first!" Rikku teased.

This snapped Yuna awake and she dashed past Rikku before she could even blink.

"Hey, no fair, I didn't say 'GO'. Arrrgh." Rikku yelled, chasing after Yuna.

A few hours later Yuna had chosen her room and was half way through unpacking. Despite Rikku's protests that it was an unfair and she was caught off guard, Yuna got what she thought was the best room. It had the view of the road, which wasn't busy except for neighbourhood traffic, (Yuna was the nosey type), plus it was the biggest!

Rikku said she should have the biggest room because she had more clothes, but then Yuna argued back that she shouldn't have teased Yuna and should have used her commonsense, (if she had any), to chose her room before Yuna was finished staring at the house.

The debate was finally settled when Cid said Yuna had been though a huge ordeal today, and also, the built in wardrobes were exactly the same size so it made no difference who had more clothes. Brother also added that Yuna was nicer than Rikku but he just got a slap for that.

Yuna collapsed down on her bed after all the things that had happened today. Now her fear of water and heights were even worse – She was never going on an airship again.

But her mind was still on _him_. Why wouldn't he just leave her alone? She had only met the guy today and it was like she had known him all her life. She _can't _keep thinking about a stranger – its not like she's going to see him again!

She dragged herself off the bed and walked over to the window to open it. She gazed around at the neighbourhood. It was peaceful and quiet, just the way she liked it.

Then suddenly she heard shouting and yelling coming from the house on her left, ruining the peacefulness.

"Just get the £ ?# out of my life, I never wanted you." Yelled one deep grown up's voice.

"I didn't chose to be born, you should have thought of that before you chose to have me." Yelled back another voice, slightly younger but definitely masculine, as was the first.

Yuna hated to _look_ nosey, but she still tilted her head a little towards the house and listened intently.

"SHUT UP, JUST SHUT UP. You're worthless, you're nothing, you're just a waste of a pitiful life." Shouted the older man, his voice growing hoarse from shouting so loud for so long, "anddd, you'll never be as good as me at Blitzball. Just get out… I said GET OUT NOW, and don't bother coming back."

"Fine, maybe I will." Said the younger, (probably a teenager), darkly.

Yuna felt tingling shivers shoot up and down her back when she heard the boy's mysterious, dark voice speak suddenly so quietly. Then several slamming doors were heard and then she heard the front door unclick and slam shut so hard that several birds in the trees by the pavement fled in fear.

Yuna leaned out of her window so far that her ribcage hurt. She wanted to see who the boy was so badly. For a second, she thought maybe he had gone back inside, but then she saw it. A glimpse, a flash, a flick of … blond flaxen hair, before it was quickly blocked from sight by the house he had exited. Yuna blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't just hallucinating, but he was gone with such an amazing speed running down the road and she couldn't see him for his house blocked her view, she could just hear his footsteps lightly running with increasing speed down the road.

'_It can't be him, surely_' Yuna tried to convince herself.

'_No, the possibilities that I would see him again are a million to one, let alone the possibilities of living right next door to him_.'

But still the thought bugged Yuna for the rest of the evening, Rikku, Cid and even Brother saw she had her mind on something but didn't mention it to her.

'_Maybe I've just been thinking about him too much today. Maybe I'm gonna start seeing him everywhere?!_' Yuna pondered later that night in bed.

But still, if it _was_ him, then what was he doing arguing with that man, (probably his dad), like that? Why was his dad shouting at him? Why did he speak with such a dark, shady tone so unlike how he was earlier?

'_Tidus, what are you hiding?_' Were Yuna's last thoughts before she drifted off into a heavy sleep. ' _Tidus… what are you hiding…?'_

(A/N: Yesss, I've done it!!! I kept on meaning to write the next chapter coz I wrote the first two a while ago – but I was determined not to get fed up and leave it at that. Thank you for all your reviews, and I will put Auron and Lulu in it. Wish me luck for the next chapter and feel free the point out mistakes, praise or criticize in reviews! Loves ya, 8-)).


	4. Deja Vu

(A/N: Okay, here goes. Thank you for all for the reviews and advice and I will try not to over use my adjectives when writing, and when I get spare time I will probably go back and re-do the first few chapters. I just have so much I want to write about the smallest thing, I can't help myself! Okay, thank you again!)

Disclaimer: I don't own FFX, FFX-2 – they are all property of square soft. They won't even let me borrow them, how unfair is that – it's not like I would ever want to break them.

**Déjà vu**

'_Okay, don't get panicky Yuna, just stay calm, calm, just stay calm. You can do this._' Yuna tried convincing herself. First days of a new school are probably one of the most nervous things you can experience, well for some - Rikku was jumping up and down on the sofa with Brother signing out of tune to a Spice Girl's song. Cid had accidentally brought her _frosted_ shreddies, not plain, so she was more hyped up than usual at only 7:30 in the morning.

Brother had brought a second-hand car down at a garage and was going to drive Yuna and Rikku to school so he was pretty hyped up too.

"Yunie, you okay?" Rikku enquired over 'If you wanna be my lover', which didn't really suit the question.

"Yeah, just a lil' nervous - usually am!" Yuna tried to joke but her voice was shaky, just like her hands.

"Just relax Yunie, everything is gonna be okay. I'm gonna stick with you no matter what. I promise any cute boys, like last time, won't sidetrack me. Well, if they do then you can come with me!" Rikku giggled at the last sentence, but stopped as soon as she saw Yuna's face, "Okay it was a joke, joke. I was just a _joke_ okay." Though Rikku had a slightly dreamy look on her face. "You recon that boy's gonna be there, you know... the cute blond one we met at the beach – Tudus or Timbus, something like that?"

"TIDUS!" Yes. Yuna had thought about that many, many times during the night about him. It was possible that he would go seeing as Ifrit Aeon High was the only high school on the island. '_Oh, so that's what he must have meant by _'see ya later'' Yuna pondered.

"Come on Rikku, Yuna – We go to school now and Brother goes to COLLEGE." Brother boasted proudly, showing off to Yuna in particular.

"Oh shut up, it's not like that's the first time we've heard that this morning." Rikku said before lazily pulling Yuna out of the sofa, who didn't comply happily.

Brother could be heard yehawing from the car and Yuna felt the same nauseating feeling she had had all yesterday come back – Brothers driving, NOOOOOO!!!

"Oh come on Yunie, its not that bad!" Rikku said to Yuna reassuringly. Yuna just gazed at all the masses of people that surged through the doors. It's not like she hadn't seen it before at Zanarkand High, but at least then she had had some vague idea of who they all were.

"Lets go to the reception, they'll give us our schedules and maps." Rikku said lightly and dragged Yuna off towards reception.

About 10 minutes later, Rikku asked a cute boy if he knew where reception was.

Then, a further few minutes more, Rikku and Yuna burst through the reception doors and nearly shocked the life out of the elderly receptionist.

"Hiya, we're new and we need our schedules n' stuff!" Rikku said enthusiastically to the receptionist who just stared at her evilly for sounding so happy, before pressing the intercom button, mumbling a few inaudible words then turning back to the girls.

"Go down the hall to the very end then turn left, that is the Headmasters room, he will speak to you." She said snappily, "Oh, and by the way, don't use the front door of the reception, that's for visitors only – not pupils."

"We are visitors, sorta." Rikku mumbled as soon as they were out of listening range of the receptionist. "How were we supposed to know anyway?"

Yuna and Rikku final reached the door of the headmaster's room and knocked. A gruff voice answered and they hesitantly walked in.

"You're the new students I see. Take a seat." He said. He had dark, shaven hair and wore dark tint glasses. He wore a black suit with a crimson tie. He would have looked neat if it weren't for the un-shaven look and a huge scare on his eye. "My name is Sir Auron." He said as soon as they were sat.

Despite his rough appearances, Yuna felt unafraid of him and could already sense a calm, friendly side to him.

"Well, first of all I hope you had a good journey over," He said this mainly looking over at Yuna, almost as if he knew? "...and I would like to welcome you to one of the best high school's in all of Spira..."

He continued with his short introductory speech, and then handed over their schedules and maps. "We hope you enjoy your time here!" He finished, and then dismissed them kindly with a rough smile, that was heart warming at the same time.

Rikku gave the receptionist evils on the way out.

"Wotcha got Yunie." Rikku asked gazing over Yuna's shoulder at her schedule intently.

"Spiran History." Yuna said with a groan. She could remember Rikku's mobile number by heart, her old Zanarkand locker and even Brother's weird pizza toppings – but when it came to history she couldn't even remember when sphere's were invented... wait, were they invented or did they grow on trees...?

"Oh, I got Al Bhed." Rikku said first happily, but then saw Yuna's face. "Don't worry Yunie, you'll be fine – You're pretty, funny (once you get to know you), and loads of people will want to get to know you, don't worry." Rikku comforted her.

"Well, we better get off now, see ya later!"

"Bye Rikku, meet you at break." Yuna answered sullenly, whilst her cousin bounced off into the crowd – sending any cute boy smiles on the way.

'_Right, where do I go?_' Yuna stared at her map hard. It didn't seem to be making much sense.

15 minutes later Yuna was staring at her map in despair. She was sat on some steeps in a courtyard of some sort trying to work out where she was now she realised she had been holding the map upside down.

"Can I help, you look lost." Came a slightly husky voice from behind Yuna. She jumped and spun around to come face to face with a girl dressed in a tight black corset dress. She had jet-black hair pulled back tightly into a bun with chopsticks poked through and some tresses of hair falling out prettily. Her eye's were a fiery black-red and she had plum lipstick on. She was beautiful in a dark way.

"Oh, umm – yesss..." Yuna trailed off, then pulled herself together, "I'm Yuna." She held out her hand in a friendly way and the girl kindly shook it and gave a small smile.

"I'm Lulu, do you mind if I see you schedule?" Lulu enquired.

"No, no go ahead."

"Oh, you've got Spiran History with me!" She exclaimed. Yuna gave a huge sigh of relief.

"Follow me, the bus made me late so at least we won't be alone when we enter the class room and get laughed at!" Yuna giggled softly at Lulu's dark sense of humour and followed her lead.

The beginning of the day went by quickly and Yuna found herself surprised at how soon break came.

Lulu lead her to a bench outside and Yuna was about to text Rikku as to where she was, when she heard her name called-

"Yunieeeeeeeeeeeeee, how was your day!" Rikku came galloping though the crowds of people as they stared at her in surprise, but she didn't care.

"It was surprisingly good!" Yuna exclaimed, with a true smile upon her face. Then she saw Lulu's raised eyebrows in amusement at Rikku and quickly explained, "Oh Lulu this is Rikku, Rikku this is Lulu. Rikku's my cousin who I live with."

They both said hi and settled down and surprising found loads of stuff to talk about despite their clashing personalities and clothes.

"Oh, here's Wakka and Tidus!" Lulu suddenly said – interrupting Rikku's and hers conversation about peppermint foot cream (don't ask why).

The world seemed to come to a complete halt. Yuna turned her head sharply and couldn't believe what she saw. There he was. Everything froze, everything became a blur, and all she could see was _him_. Striding slowly towards her, with his eyes slowly drawing from the others to hers. They stared for what seemed to be an eternity, neither one able to pull away. Then Wakka tugged sharply on Tidus' arm to sit. He complied and cut the eye contact between Yuna and himself. Then she noticed it – he had a slight purple bruise on his high cheekbone beneath his right eye.

Yuna watched the exchanged between Wakka and Lulu as Lulu flicked her eye's at Tidus' bruise to Wakka with a worried look. Wakka just swallowed and glanced at Tidus to Lulu and bit his lower lip. All this happened in seconds before the world snapped back into play and everything started moving at normal speed again.

"Hi Yuna, and Rikku is it?!" Wakka said happily, dismissing the mental swaps that had happened just a second ago.

"Yeah hi, how are you?" Tidus said asking mainly Yuna due to her fall but then flicking his eye's over to Rikku.

"Oh we're fine." Rikku said, smiling cutely at Tidus and Wakka before returning to suck her ribeana juice - hard.

"Oh... It's okay – I was a lil' nervous at first but then Lulu here helped me out!" Yuna found herself managing to make an ironic comment and not stutter so much!

"Good, good." Wakka said. Tidus was staring at the table moodily and Yuna guessed his bruise had something to do with it.

All was silent for a minute or too, which was kind of awkward.

"Hey Tidus – which house number do you live at?" Yuna asked, proud to have broken the silence and ask a fairly decent question, "It's just I thought I saw you yesterday?"

He looked over at Yuna, a slight look of relief adoring his handsome features to have broken the silence. "Number 56, which number are you then?" Tidus said smiling.

"No kidding, we live at number 57 – that's like right next door!!!" Rikku butted in with complete look disbelief written on her face.

Finally a conversation started up and Yuna felt like saying 'mission accomplished'!

The day went by quickly and Yuna felt like she really belonged somewhere. She had had her last lesson with Tidus – ICT.

They had made friendly chat although occasionally they would catch each other's eyes and a few minutes would go by before one could break off. Apart from that, Yuna felt really at ease with Tidus and luckily she didn't stutter!

Yuna skipped towards the car that Rikku was already in.

"Ohhhh, someone's in a good mood!" Rikku teased as Yuna hoped inside the car with a huge smile upon her face.

"Oh, I've just had the best day of my entire life!" Yuna exclaimed excitedly to Rikku.

"Hmmmm, is it to do with a certain _someone_!!!" Rikku said. Brother swerved the car and caused both girls the grip the seats tightly.

"Maybe..." Yuna teased and watched Rikku agonise at Yuna for not spilling. Brother just sped quickly home, slightly moodily.

(A/N: Wow, I think that's the longest chapter I've done so far. It was a close one because me brother barged in when I was checking it through! Sorry if there are any mistakes but I'm really tired. Even though, feel free to review with praise or criticism – don't mind just don't tell me to rewrite the whole story. Thank you all for you're reviews – they give me the confidence to keep going! ; ))


	5. Just Friends

(AN: Okay, I had a lil' break, but I'm back. I was just brainstorming on how to progress it towards the cool ideas I have for later! Ohhhh, betcha wanna know what they are now! Oh well, I've got an ICT test tomorrow which is about 'people'??? and I had a geography test this morning and my hand got all slippery and shaky. Oh well, at least I got that 6 mark question on fold mountains, (No, I'm not a nerd usually), Neway, enjoy! )

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy X or X-2, they all belong to Squaresoft, : -(

**Just Friends**

(_A few weeks later_)

"Wakie, wakie, rise and shine – it's cup-of-coffee time!!!" Rikku yelled in Yuna's ear.

Yuna shot up with bleary eyes and seriously scrunched up hair.

"W-what – RIKKU!" Yuna said. Rikku gave a childish smile and shoved a cup of coffee into her hands.

"Sorry, but if you didn't wake up even after _that_, then I would have to set Brother on you." Rikku answered with a scary sense of truth, "Besides, you don't have to dread school anymore by hiding under the covers – you fit in just perfect, like I hoped you would!" Rikku said as she exited the room.

'_That's not the point, I was having nice dream... about Tidus – but that's not the point!_' Yuna grumbled and dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom.

Despite their slight delay from Yuna – they both made it to school with about 15 minutes to spare.

"Hey Rikku, hey Yuna – how's it goin?" Wakka practically shouted, from the usual bench.

Lulu rolled her eye's as half the school turned to stare at him.

"Oh, we're doing just fine." Rikku said with ecstatic happiness as she jumped on the bench causing the whole thing to wobble like 10 on the Richer Scale. (A/N: I got geography on the brain)

"Yep, and we made it to school on time, which is a plus!" Yuna added lightly and sat down next to Lulu, "Hey, where's Tidus?"

"Oh... he ummm... well what I mean is... well I –" Wakka started.

"He'll probably come in later, he told me he had a bit of headache." Lulu finished, and Yuna caught her giving a quick glare to Wakka who blushed, but decided not to question it.

"Hey, we're thinking of going out somewhere tonight – wanna come?" Lulu asked.

"Sure!" Rikku answered without hesitation.

"Errrr, sure – but where?" Yuna answered with caution.

"Hmmmmm, I'm not sure but I feel like tonight's a socialising night. We'll pick you up at 7, I'm sure I'll have decided by then – just think of it as a surprise!" Lulu added.

BBBBBBBBRRRRRRRIIIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yuna's first lesson was science – which was good because she was partnered with Tidus and bad because he wasn't here today.

"Okay class – today we're going to be doing some partner work!" Said Mr Rin, who taught Al Bhed and Science.

'_Great, just my luck_' Yuna rolled her eyes.

"Is this seat taken?" Asked an icy voice from behind Yuna. It slithered on the 's' and made Yuna feel slightly self-conscious, in a bad way.

Yuna turned around to come face to face with the most ugly looking person she had ever seen. Yuna wasn't one to judge by looks, but this guy had to come first in the 'Spira's Ugliest Man' contest. He had electric blue hair that made his already pale skin look a pasty, blue colour. He had violet eyes, which would have been pretty if it wasn't for the secret plans and purvey emotion in them. He had a cracked smile on his lips that didn't look the slightest bit inviting.

Yuna suddenly realised she had been staring at this guy for quite a while, with her mouth open, and still hadn't answered his question.

"Oh ummm..." Yuna glanced at Tidus' seat from the guy, to the seat again.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I am Seymour." He butted in, and with that he sat down in Tidus' place.

"I-I..." But Yuna felt it was helpless, for Seymour had switched his attention to the front of the class. She just sighed.

Later on they were doing the experiment and Yuna wasn't enjoying herself the slightest bit. Seymour was trying to strike up a conversation about Covalent Bonds between Atoms, but she wasn't listening. Besides, every time she turned her back, she could feel his scary eyes on her, checking her out, which gave her more shivers.

Just as Yuna was writing the temperature after 2 minutes, someone opened the classroom door. It was Tidus. A feeling of relief washed over Yuna – surely this would mean Seymour would leave her alone.

Tidus walked up to Mr Rin and handed him a note. They exchanged a few words, and then Tidus turned to walk over to Yuna – but stopped suddenly. Yuna followed his eyesight to Seymour, who was staring back at Tidus equally. There was a look of pure hatred in each other's eyes. Tidus' usually handsome face was creased with a dark frown and Seymour's hands had clenched into tightly balled fists.

Tidus flicked his glance over to Yuna before walking over to their desk.

"Seymour... you can go now." Tidus said blankly.

"No way, I was here first – you're gonna have to work on your own or with someone else." Said Seymour with smirk in his voice.

"But Yuna's my partner." Answered Tidus with rising anger.

"Make me move then." Said Seymour as his voice began to rise. Yuna didn't like the turn of this conversation.

"Tidus, you're going to have to work with Yuna _and_ Seymour." Said Mr Rin from across the classroom. Both men grunted and Tidus walked round to Yuna's left side, whilst Seymour was on her other.

Yuna gave a relieved sigh at both the controlled argument and the fact that Tidus was here, which would hopefully cease Seymour's purvey glances.

Conversation was tight, but at least it stopped Seymour chatting about Atoms.

Finally the bell rang, and Seymour hurriedly packed up and left.

"Listen Yuna." Said Tidus with a gentle voice caught Yuna's attention easily.

"Yes...."

"Could you promise me to stay away from Seymour? Please." Tidus asked her, a hint of worry apparent.

"I would anyway! But why?" Said Yuna, captivated by those beautiful azure eyes, unable to pull away.

"Trust me, he's not good news. It's a long story, but just _promise_ me you will stay away from him." And with that he pulled away from her eyes to sling his bag over his shoulder and signal for her to lead the way.

'_What's Seymour done to Tidus?_' Yuna thought as she and Tidus made their way to the usual bench.

She felt warm and happy to have him beside her and risked a quick glance his way – when she saw it – another light purple bruise just slightly under his jaw near his ear on the right. She hadn't seen it before but now her attention was drawn to it in curiosity.

Risking a quick glance hadn't been a good idea, for Tidus felt her eyes on him and turned to meet her gaze. He realised she was looking at his bruise.

"How did you...?" Yuna asked stupidly before thinking, and then trailed off.

Tidus stared at her for a few seconds, in thought.

"Didn't look where I was goin and walked into a door frame." He replied shortly.

'_Liar_' Yuna thought, ' _I can tell you're lying. Why won't you tell me, but you tell Lulu and Wakka? I know I'm new but don't you trust me as a friend yet?_'

Yuna let it go, and the end of school dragged on – she couldn't wait for their surprise tonight.

7 O' clock came soon though, and Rikku rushed to the door to answer Lulu. Yuna walked to the front door with a broad smile on her pretty face.

"So where are we goin?" Rikku asked excitedly, jumping up and down on the spot.

"Lets just say, grab your swimming stuff!" Lulu said.

With that, Yuna's smile quickly disappeared.

Lulu saw it disappear and quickly said, "Sorry if that's not what you were expecting but we're so fed up of just going to the bars and clubs – besides none of us have gone swimming properly before, well Tidus and Wakka go swimming at Blitz but that's all practice and no fun!"

Still Yuna couldn't manage to smile.

"Errrrm, it's not that, it's just.... I can't swim - I have a fear of water." Yuna said quietly.

Lulu stayed silent, and Tidus suddenly jumped oven the front garden fence into Yuna's garden and walked up to the porch, with a dazzling smile on his face.

"Okay, shall we go then?" He said happily.

"I'm not so sure we're gonna go now!" Said Lulu.

Yuna suddenly realised what a spoilsport she was being.

"I know – we will all go, I'll come I promise, but I might just stay in the shallow end or on the edge. I really don't want to ruin the fun, I'll just chat with you guys and stuff!" Yuna rushed.

"Are you sure?" Lulu asked hesitantly, "We don't want you to get bored."

"Oh, don't worry – I'm sure I'll have fun watching _you_ guys!" Yuna said playfully – everything was going to be okay!

"Okay, if you're really sure you don't mind?" Tidus said before indicating for them to head over to Wakka's car, in which Wakka sat, completely bored, with his arm draped out the window.

"Let's get goin, ya!" He said and stared the engine.

Everyone was changed and headed out from the changing rooms to the pool, which was completely empty being so late at night – except for Wakka and Tidus who were already in there trying to dunk each other under, and failing!

The sight of even the peaceful water made Yuna shiver. Rikku gave her a reassuring nudge and went to stand over but the pool's edge. Wakka caught sight of them and whistled. Lulu just gave a saucy smile at Wakka and went to stand over by Rikku.

"Good, it's freezing, I'm not going in there!" Rikku moaned after dipping a toe in.

"Tough!!!" Lulu said and shoved her in.

Rikku's screaming was cut short when she hit the water. Yuna couldn't help but giggle uncontrollably.

"You're so gonna pay for that-" Said Rikku as she emerged. But couldn't say anymore as Lulu dived in.

They continued to fight some more, but Yuna still couldn't bring herself to walk over to the ledge on the shallow end.

"You okay?" A gentle voice suddenly asked. Yuna turned to face Tidus, who had got out the water and quietly approached her.

My Yevon, he looked completely gorgeous. He wore some black, baggy trunks with a dark blue stripe on the left right-hand side. His messy hair was still appetising even when damp, and his beautiful eye's look fantastic in the glowing blue light the pool was giving off. Yuna couldn't help but get repercussions of when he saved her from the depth of the Besaid oceans.

"Sort of. I just didn't realise how hard it would _actually_ be – to just simply walk over to the ledge and put my feet in the water!" Yuna said, her voice slightly shaky – whether it was Tidus of the water causing that, she didn't know.

"Do you want some help?"

"Yes!" Yuna said with delight, then realised how happy she sounded and saw Tidus raise a sexy eyebrow at her, "Errr, I mean yes please." She covered up her mistake and blushed.

Tidus just smiled at her and held out his hand for her to hold, which she accepted gratefully. This was probably the only time she had touched him properly – though there was that time where she accidentally clasped his hand in ICT because she was left handed and he was right, so she had placed his hand over his on the mouse.

Tidus led her slowly over to the water, which reflected admirably off his fine abs.

When they got to the edge, she felt herself get dizzy and sway from the beautiful water only a few inches away. Tidus grabbed her before she fell over and for a second they were frozen in each other's arms – Yuna pressed comfortably inside his strong arms that held her tightly, reminding her even more of him picking her up off the ocean floor.

"I feel like I've seen this before!" Tidus joked and Yuna giggled softly.

He let her go and slid into the water, which came up to his mid thigh. He held out his arms to go round her middle. Yuna felt her heart rate quicken and she carefully let herself be held by Tidus as he lowered her onto the ledge. His arms stopped her from falling forward.

It was cold but she got used to it. Reluctantly, Tidus let go of her and gave her a small, gentle smile. He turned to dive into the water to the others, who were unaware of what had just happened and having a splash-fight.

"Tidus-" Yuna found her self blurt.

He turned to meet her eyes and for a second said nothing.

"Yes?"

"Could... C - could you teach me to swim?" Yuna new she was probably asking a lot, and refused to look at him but stared at the rhythmic water.

There was a moment of silence.

"Sure!" He said happily, and she snapped her head up to meet his beautiful eyes.

"Really!"

"_No, not really!_" Said Tidus with obvious sarcasm in his voice, before smiling and closing the distance between them.

"First, we're gonna practice floating!" He said and slid his arms around her middle, and gently lifted her off the edge.

Yuna's heart went into super speed mode from the water sliding up to the top of her thighs, and Tidus' bare hands on her body.

"Okay, lets go a lil' bit deeper, so you can just touch the floor." He said calmly.

"NO, NO – not deeper than this." Yuna pleaded, "I don't wont to go any deeper." Tension rose in her voice and she clasped her hands tightly around his arms holding her.

"I'll be right here, to catch you – trust me, I won't let anything happen to you." Tidus said gently, holding her gaze with truth.

Yuna felt herself calm down a little and complied. The water slid higher.

"Okay, take a deep breath," Tidus said, and Yuna did, "Can you feel yourself float?" He asked.

Yuna nodded.

"Okay, now release that breath and take another, then try to stay floating. I'm not going to hold you, just have my arms beneath you in case."

Yuna reluctantly took a deep breath and released her hands from his arms. For a second she floated - she was actually floating! But then, she felt herself sink and began to panic. She thrashed about and felt Tidus try to grab her but she was struggling too hard. She grab the nearest thing and wrapped herself tightly around... Tidus.

For a second, her panic ceased and she felt safe, but then she suddenly realised what she was doing and brought her embarrassed gaze up to Tidus' eyes. She had her arms wrapped tightly around his neck and her legs wrapped around his middle. Their lips were only a few centimetres apart – she could easily close the distance...

He raised another eyebrow at her.

"I told you, I'll catch you – so you don't need to thrash about, I'm right here!" Yuna reddened a little, and suddenly realised how quiet it was. She and Tidus simultaneously looked over at the others, who in turn, where all staring at them. Wakka had a cocky grin and Lulu and Rikku were giggling. Wakka then gave a loud wolf whistle!

Now it was Tidus' turn to blush.

"Shut up Wakka, I'm teaching Yuna to swim!" Tidus said hastily.

"Awww, young love!" Sighed Rikku, and Yuna gave her the worst glare ever!

They survived the moment of humiliation, and the others went back to their splash fight, Rikku and Lulu against Wakka.

"A-hem!" Said Tidus, and Yuna realised that she was still wrapped around him.

"Oh, err ... lets continue!" Yuna said.

Several minutes later, Yuna could just about float and didn't have any worries about Tidus not catching her, because, (on several occasions), he had always been there when she had started sinking.

They soon moved onto different floating styles. Yuna could manage a mushroom float for a few seconds, and then tried the starfish float on her back. She had the most trouble with this as she continuously sank.

She tried it one last time, this time – Tidus placed his hand on her back to support her. She lay staring up at the ceiling with the beautiful reflections on it for several minutes. Tidus could just be seen out the corner of her eye, smiling at her.

'_What's he smiling about?_' Yuna wondered, when suddenly she realised that his hand wasn't supporting her back anymore.

She smiled back at him and continued to lie staring up at the ceiling for a few minutes more, before grabbing hold of his outstretched arm.

"How long ago did you let go of me?" Yuna asked with happiness.

"'Bout a second after you were in the floating position!" He said as he guided her over to the pool steps.

The time had passed quickly without Yuna realising it. It was now 9:30.

The others got out shortly and headed to the changing rooms, Yuna smiled at Tidus, as he headed into the men's changing room, who returned it, showing pearly white teeth and lighting a red-hot fire inside her.

They all got changed and got into the car.

When they reached Yuna and Rikku's, and Tidus' house, the three got out.

"Bye, see ya'll tomorrow!" Wakka and Lulu said, and the others returned it.

Rikku gave a quick wink at Yuna, causing her to blush scarlet, before she headed inside –leaving Yuna with Tidus.

"I had fun tonight, thank you." Yuna said happily to Tidus.

"S'no problem!" He replied lightly, and they glazed at each other for what seemed like an eternity.

"I guess I'll see you at school tomorrow then?" He added.

"Yes... Oh, ummm..." Yuna thought about how she was going to phrase this, "Tidus, could you give me swimming lessons...?" She trailed off, but was unafraid to look him in the eye.

He paused in thought, and for a horrible second Yuna thought he was going to say no.

"Sure! But we'll have to sort out a day when I haven't got Blitz practice... like a Tuesday evening, 'bout 7 o'clock, that way it's not gonna be busy?" He gave her a wonderful smile and she felt like dancing around the street.

"Great, that's fine. Thank you, again!" Yuna replied, trying to suppress her excitement.

"Okay, well... night!"

"Yeah, night..." Yuna gazed up at him and became victim to his captivating eyes, again, and, without thinking what she was doing; she closed the distance between them and gave him a gentle kiss on his cheek.

She felt his soft, smooth skin beneath her lips and his flaxen, gold hair gently tickled her forehead.

For a moment they were frozen, then she stepped back and offered him a small smile, before turning towards her front door. When she reached it she turned again and smiled at him again. He was still stood on the same spot, but he gave her a gorgeous smile too, that told her that he definitely didn't mind _that_!

She opened the door and shut it behind her. She leaned against it, closed her eyes and sighed.

'_We're just friends, just friends... just friends – that kiss?_' Yuna opened her eyes to come face to face with Rikku who had a secretive, playful smile on her lips.

"Ohhhh Yunie, I would never have know you would have the guts to do that – especially to someone as _hot_ as _him_!!!" She teased.

"Hey!"

"Well, did it feel nice?!" Rikku asked with curiosity.

"Yesss..." Yuna said with a dreamy look on her face, before heading up-stairs, leaving Rikku to moan at her for not spilling the beans, again!

'_Well, it was only a peck on the cheek – but still, it was amazing!_' Yuna thought, before flopping down on her bed.

(AN: Phew, that took forever and about half way through I gave it a rest, but me family were out today looking at fireplaces and sandwiches, (don't ask), so it was a good opportunity to write it all with out interruptions! I've done me ICT test, which was ok-ish, but I borrowed all the pretty highlighters off the boy next to me and did my nails, (he did me right hand), and now it won't come off, dammit. Okies, hope you enjoyed this chapter, feel free the review with criticism, praise or to egg me on, like always! Loves ya all, wish me luck ï 


	6. Just a normal day?

(A/N: Okies, it's been a longer while, and I don't really have a reason for the break, except maybe I was lazy. Hope you enjoy and thanks for all the reviews so far, I promise I will talk all your advice into account, but I won't change the mistakes till I've got quite far – basically so I got all me ideas down n'stuff.)

Disclaimer: I don't own FFX or FFX-2, all of which belong to Square Soft or Enix, one of the two???

**Just a normal day?**

Yuna really had changed since they had moved to Besaid. She began to actually look forward to the school day ahead, as well as swimming. Rikku said maybe she hit her head really hard when she fell out the airship, but maybe there was another reason…

"Brother, slow down okay, you're gonna get us killed." Rikku yelled with her head in between the two front seats, yelling in Brothers ear, "What if I die?" She asked.

"Brother don't care, Rikku is annoying me." Brother replied huffily.

"Okay then, what if Yuna died??? Huh, what would you do 'bout that then huh, huh?" Rikku snapped back and Brother slowed the car down.

Finally, the two made it to school with out a scratch.

"Yevon, he drives me nuts sometimes." Rikku exclaimed exasperatedly, with her head in her hands

"Maybe you shouldn't be so hard on him sometimes?" Yuna, always the optimistic one, replied.

"Yuna, if I wasn't so hard on him, then he would probably have asked you out a looooong time ago." Rikku said.

"What, Brother…and ME!!! Ewww, that's disgusting – he's like…my cousin."

"What, you mean you haven't noticed?"

They made it table, and found that for once, Tidus was there along with the others, on time.

"Hiya how's y'all?" Wakka asked in his usual friendly accent.

"Fiiiine!" Rikku answered for them, and they plopped down on the bench.

"Good, we hoped you enjoyed last night." Lulu said, and her eyes rested on Yuna with a mischievous glimmer in them.

"Lulu…" Tidus said with a warning tone, but he had a playful smile on his lips.

"Yeah, I can't wait till we go out as a group again, it's sooooo much fun." Rikku said, before resuming to sucking on her ribeana carton - I swear she's addicted to those.

"Yeah, but maybe not swimming next time?" Lulu said with an uneasy glance at Yuna, "I'm sorry, it was stupid of me not to tell you – it's best to do those sort of things when you know someone better. I promise any surprises that I plan in future will be carefully checked to make sure no one is uneasy with them."

"Well, thanks, I guess, but I don't think I would mind swimming again." Yuna said, with a smile playing on her lips and risked a quick glance at Tidus who was smiling just the same.

"Okay, well glad that's sorted then ya. Now lets get goin, Yuna – you and Lulu have Spiran History. Tidus, you and me got Blitzball and Rikku you got… erm… I can't remember." Wakka said

"Al Bhed!" Rikku jumped up excitedly, "Lesson's easy and the teacher's dishy!"

With that she jogged off, then ran back and picked up her bag that Lulu held out, then ran off again, shouting a thank you over her shoulder.

BBBBBBBBRRRRRRRIIIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"So what's going on between you and chocobo head?" Lulu asked eagerly. They were sat at their desks waiting for Mr Maechen.

"Huh?" Yuna gazed off into the distance. It was Tuesday and she couldn't wait until this evening.

"I said, what is going on with you and Tidus?" Lulu asked again.

Yuna snapped out of her daze and glance around the classroom to see if anyone was listening. Lulu just laughed at her agitation, like anyone was listening.

"Oh, um, nothing." Yuna tried to reply innocently, but blushed furiously.

"Yeah riiiight!"

"Okay, fine… he's giving me some swimming lessons."

"Really, wow…"

"What's so amazing?"

"Nothing…well…Tidus doesn't seem _that_ close if you know what I mean. I don't mean that he's not close to you, just on the whole – with any new people, strangers etc, he just takes a while to warm to them."

"Why?"

"It's just his nature. He's always been this way since…" Lulu trailed off, immediately regretting those words, but Yuna wasn't giving up now – finally she would find out something about Tidus, the reason for his secrets and the darkness within.

"Since what… Lulu since what???" Yuna asked eagerly.

"I don't think it's my place to say."

"Lulu… I may be new, but I love all of you - our group of friends, and I would never do anything to hurt anyone or use this information against any of you. Please, I would ask Tidus and I know he would tell me – eventually - but it would take a long time. What if I say something that might hurt him, and it was because I didn't know this…secret." Yuna pleaded.

"Yuna-"

"Please Lulu…" Yuna pleaded again, she was desperate to know more about Tidus. His mysterious air attracted her to him like a fly to honey. She just needed to know.

"Well, Tidus used to be this happy-go-lucky guy. Everything in his life was perfect, all the guy's wanted to be him, all the girls wanted to be with him. He's still a bit like that today, but Tidus is different on the inside and his attitude towards life has… changed…" Lulu paused and a look of complete sadness came over her face.

"He still has the same attitude on the outside, and it fools most people – they think he's okay, but he's not. Tidus is good at masking his feelings, he's done it for most of his life, and I'm honestly surprised you noticed it, for only Wakka and I can see and that's because we actually _know_ about his past." She stopped to pause.

"11 years ago, when Tidus was 6, he and his mother were kidnapped. The people who did this just came into their house one day, posing as salesmen, and took them away. Tidus' father was a famous Blitzball Star, and they hoped to hold both Tidus and his mother at ransom, at a hefty price too. Jeckt, Tidus' father, was willing to pay the price for his wife, but not for his son. The kidnappers said that they would only give back both if Jeckt paid the full price for each. He was advised to bluff agreeing, and arrange an exchange point for the money. He did so, but the kidnappers already knew this – I don't know how though. They…" Lulu stopped, she was shaking slightly.

"Yuna, I…are you really sure you…" Lulu could tell from the look in Yuna's eyes that she couldn't stop now.

"They…murdered Tidus' mother and did other things unimaginable whilst she was alive. They also beat Tidus and…left him. They fled and he was found, with his mother where they…left him." With that Lulu bowed her head, Yuna was shocked. She knew something was wrong with Tidus, but not _this_ wrong.

Yuna couldn't believe what she had heard. She gazed effortlessly into nothing. The lesson began, and Lulu stayed quiet, and Maechen droned on, and Yuna…Yuna just gazed, before tears welled up and she had to be excused to the bathroom.

That evening, Yuna sat at the bottom of her stairs, opposite the front door. She was having a dilemma – what if she couldn't look at him straight, what if she couldn't handle him…touching her when he tried to help, what if he knew she knew what Lulu knew that he knew? What if…what if…

DINGDONG

'_Er, er, er…think straight Yuna, think straight – he's fine now isn't he, isn't he???_'

"Someone gonna get that?" Cid yelled from the kitchen.

Yuna reached for the door handle. Slowly she clasped her fingers around the cool metal sphere and turned it. The door creaked a little, and Tidus stood there, with a shy smile on his face.

"You gonna take all day standin' there or do I have to teach you how to walk too?" He asked cheekily.

'_Well, he obviously doesn't know I know! Phew… but how can he survive all he's been through, how did he stay so strong and doesn't look the least bit fazed?_' Yuna continued to think, whilst gazing at the floor, waiting for Brother.

Brother finally came downstairs, dragging his feet. He had been moody about taking Yuna and Tidus to swimming, but she had finally persuaded him to drive them.

"Yuna, you know Brother can teach you how to swim?" Brother asked hopefully.

"Yeah riiiight, tough guy – you still need armbands." Rikku yelled from the lounge, where she had been eating melted ice cream.

"Fine!" Brother huffed and stalked outside the car, glaring at Tidus on the way. Tidus just raised his eyebrows in amusement and signalled for Yuna to walk ahead – always such a gentleman!

"Okay, you can get in yourself now, and just walk to me in the middle of the pool." Tidus said from the centre of the middle-depth area.

Yuna slid lightly into the water and trudged her way across to where Tidus stood. The water came up just a few centimetres below her shoulders.

"Okay, good, good. Now I'm gonna teach you how to kick. It's not hard and I will hold onto you hands, you just have to keep kickin' your feet – like you're tryin to kick a Blitzball angrily but keep missin." Tidus said, trying to lighten things up a bit, and never forgetting to mention Blitzball, his favourite game.

Yuna clasped his hands instinctively and she let herself rise into a floating position like the other day.

"Okay, now KICK." Tidus yelled, and she began to furiously kick the water. Huge splashed rose and soaked herself and Tidus. He was laughing at her, and she began to laugh too.

"WOW, YOU LOOK REALLY MAD – ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT SOMEONE YOU REALLY HATE?!" He yelled above the loud splashing and kicking.

A few other people in the otherwise deserted pool turned to stare at them, but Tidus didn't seem to care, neither did Yuna for that matter.

The sudden image of Seymour – that creep – appeared in Yuna's mind and she began to kick even harder.

'_Who would Tidus think of?_' Yuna thought, but then she remembered what Lulu had said earlier.

She stopped kicking abruptly, and her feet hit the floor of the pool. Yuna just gazed at the water a few centimetres before her.

"Are…are you okay?" Tidus asked, he held a note of affection in his voice and their hands were still clasped together, with no sign of releasing.

Yuna didn't answer, just continued to gaze at the water.

'_How could they do that to him, how could they leave him, with his mother, beaten…_'

She felt Tidus put his hands under her chin, and gently lift her head so she was looking right at him. His eyes were left unguarded, and Yuna could see thousands of emotions running through them – care, sadness, affection, sorrow, happiness, anger, misery, hope, depression, truth… darkness and secrets…

Even with his eyes unguarded, Yuna could still see that there was the hidden darkness that he kept so well disguised.

"You okay?" Tidus asked again, and Yuna finally snapped out of her daze.

"Yes, just…tired I guess." Yuna lied, and she could feel Tidus' eyes searching hers, and he knew she was lying too.

"Do you wanna stop?" He asked, despite knowing she was lying.

"No, no, I haven't come all this way just to spend 5 minutes in a pool!" Yuna replied quickly.

"Okay…well you definitely know how to kick, that's for sure. Maybe we can move onto moving whilst kicking. I'll give you a float and you will hold onto it tight. We'll do a few laps of the pool with you kicking, and I will swim along side to make sure you're okay in the deep end." He said happily, all previous emotions wiped away – just like on the beach.

Yuna practiced the kicking lengths, and found herself quite good at it. Maybe she would find front crawl her best stroke? Even thought she tried to concentrate on the kicking, (with Tidus swimming effortlessly beside her), she couldn't shake the thoughts of Tidus' past.

(A/N: Okies, a bit of darkness in there for you. Hope you enjoyed or sorta didn't coz it was quite sad. Neway, feel free to review, praise or criticise.  )


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